Found a bunch of these a couple days ago too. I probably spent 15 minutes looking through the 4 sets on the shelf trying to pick the best paint job of the bunch, but I swear, when it comes to tattooed face and chest paint applications, Hasbro sucks. The only one that had Maul's striped centered down his nose correctly, had everything completely off center on the Nightsister and Savage, and vice versa. Annoying. Grabbed the best of the bunch, but will probably keep an eye out for a set with 3 decent paint jobs in the future. As has already been mentioned umpteen times, it's still annoying that Savage doesn't come with his lightsaber from his carded incarnation last year. Could've appeased a lot of collectors by sticking it in there, since very few found him last time 'round.

Still unusual that Hasbro opted to mix in a realistic character with 2 CW figures in the same BP, but that's fine by me as I much prefer the former over animated stuff. Any predictions how long it takes Target to bump the price on this thing up? I say about 3 weeks from now, 'til they figure out it's cheaper (and far better) than the other repacked BPs.

Picked up this set this morning. Really amazed with the job they did on the Nightsister and Maul.

Maul has 13 pts of articulation and the Nightsister has 14.

I have ZERO insight, but here is what I think happened:

1) Hasbro announced 19 Clone Wars figures for this year - the Maul was supposed to be in that mix2) Originally the Savage figure in the line was going to be the armored version - there was no need to ship the shirtless version since it got so much coverage in the SotDS line3) Hasbro had a "Sith Witch" figure in the works, was very far along in her development and was planning on putting her in the Vintage line with the "Expanded Universe" logo.

For whatever reason, the Sith Witch figure was bounced from Vintage - maybe in favor of another female action figure - like Shae Vizla and the Witch was left without a home.

So instead of just not releasing her and losing the investment put into her development, they swapped out the Savage in the main Clone Wars line, dropped the number of figures down to 18 and put all three figures together as a Battle Pack which they then shopped around as an exclusive.

Again, that's just my own personal speculation, but whatever the reason, I'm glad they did it - the Nightsister/Sith Witch figure being TVC quality makes this set a real hit.

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Peter

Letting my collecting OCD get the better of me on a DAILY basis... and loving EVERY minute of it!

Does anyone know Hasbro's own official explanation on how come the Nightsister isn't Mother Talzin?

I don't think any "official" explanation was ever given, nor for that matter, do I think they were ever asked.

I'm not sure it matters, because we can't really count on them providing an honest answer anyway. My take is that this was just an already sculpted Mighella figure from the canceled comic pack they had lying around and was close enough to Mother Talzin that it could qualify as a "generic nightsister".

I agree with Pete that Maul was likely the 19th carded figure for this year but they must have needed some kind of exclusive timed roughly around the season premier, so they threw together this thing.

As far as why they don't name figures specifically as they appear in the show, that is probably some kind of marketing/LFL voodoo that only makes sense to them. This is why we get two stealth clone troopers and no Commander Blackout. Or a generic ARF Trooper but no Comm. Keeli.

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Slice you open like a tauntaun, faster than the Autobahn, Or a motorbike in Tron, do the deed and then I'm gone.

I bought the set, while on sale, thinking I'd ponder selling some of the contents so I can keep the Nightsister. I don't really want the animated figures... I could dig Oppress, but Maul I'm happy with the realistic one and don't want this one (he has cooler legs though IMO).

Drop me a PM if you're interested in them, otherwise I think I'm taking the set back.

Finally opened up one of these today and I'm shocked at what I like most about this set... which is...

Savage Opress I never got the original, so I gave Maul's lightsaber to Savage and gave the Nightsister saber to Maul. Totally love the set now! I was really shocked that I gave more attention to Savage than the other figures - and I'll explain why.

Nightsister is very well-executed for a generic Nightsister, it's a definite hit. Not anything extraordinary or overtly cool (I kinda want a Talzin now that I think about it, but I'll pretend this is her), but very well done.

NOW for the elephant in the room (seriously, Maul is a giant compared to Savage, which really surprised me).

I'm so disappointed with the Maul figure. I really wanted to like this figure, and I had such high expectations! But seriously, not giving an articulated waist or wrists to an otherwise almost-perfectly articulated figure is so downright distracting! It's the fact that it's just almost there that distracts me - granted, I'm grateful Hasbro went all-out with his legs, but it's so hard to achieve any cool poses with the missing points. And I really don't like the headsculpt either, I don't think it looks much like Maul from the cartoon. Being that the Maul figure looks downright goofy and the Nightsister is just alright, I loved the Savage most of all right off the bat.

A+++ for concept.B- for execution. Granted though, this is a very nice set with much value, but, as a collector item (as in for a collector who expects TVC standards from everything, unfortunately) it's just okay.

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"'Want to see a trick I learned at the Sith Temple? It's called "'Force Choke.'"